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G. YULE, Hat Felting Machine Patented Fep. 22,1881.

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a UNITED STATES PATENT Unrrcn.

GEORGE YULE, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

HAT-FELTING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 238,016, dated February224, 1881,

Application filed October 23,1880. (no model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE YULE, of Newark, in the county of Essex andState of New Jersey,have invented an Improvement in Hat- FeltingMachines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in hat-felting machines; and itconsists in the construction of an apron for rolling and pressing thehat-bodies, and a special combination of the same with an arrangement ofmovable rollers.

The object of my invention is to provide a more effective and rapidmeans of hardening hatI-bodies, especially when they are newly formed,and consequently very tender.

The devices applicable to the second sizing operations are too rough andviolent in their operation to treat the hats at first; and my in ventionis designed to handle the hats less roughly than by the ordinarysizing-machines, while operating upon them as effectively. To securethese objects Iemploy the ribs often used to press upon such felts, butshape them concave, to fit the convex form of aroll of hat-bodies, andmount them .upon a yielding surface, like a rubber or canvas apron.While a straight rib indents a bundle of felts at the middle only,

- ble and stationary rollers, and am aware that the combination of anapron with such rollers is not new, and that the-use of ribs upon apronsand rollers is also common to produce an irregular pressure upon hats infelting, a patent to J. T. Waring, dated June 8, 1880, No. 228,704,showing concave ribs applied to the surface of a roller for a similarpurpose, while my own patent, dated July20, 1880, No.230,10l, showsstraight and inclined ribs arranged in a variety of Ways. In noconstruction, however, is the advantage secured which I obtain bymounting the concave ribs upon a belt or Fig. 4 is a side elevation ofan endless apron,

mounted in the usual way upon two stationary rollers, and provided withmy improved concave ribs. Fig. 5 is a side view, and Fig. 6 a section,on line 00 00 in Fig. 5,. of a concave rib, f.

A is the frame of the felting-machine in Figs. 1 to 3; B, the tie-bars;c, bearings for a stationary roller, 0, mounted upon the middle of theframe, at the top; D, a movable roller, mounted in bearings beneath O,and pressed downward at pleasure by the treadle T, to which the bearingsare attached t, the fulcrum for the side bars of the treadle, upon whichthe bearings b are mounted, and W a weight applied to an extension ofthe side bars, to counterbalance the weight of the entire treadle androller.

E is a roller mounted upon a swing-frame, e, at a level with roller 0,the frame being pivoted to the front posts of the main frame Aat p, anda cross-bar or handle, h, being fitted to the swing-frame at the top tomove it to and from the stationary roller 0. WVith the rollers thusarranged I use my belt F, provided with the concave ribs f, in thefollowing manner: The rollers O and E are brought in contact by pushingin the swing-frame c, and the belt is then applied to the three rolls,with the treadle fully depressed. The ends of the belt being firmlysecured in any suitable manner, the frame F is then pulled forward andthe treadle elevated, stretching the slack of the belt over the spacebetween the rollsO and E. Upon releasing the pull on the frame e thebelt can be depressed between the top rolls, forming a pocket or loop,Z, to receive the roll of felts a. (Shown in that position in Fig. 1.)Pressure is then applied to the treadle, while the swing-frameis pushedforward by the hand, and the roll 0 being revolved by the pulleys Grupon its shaft 11 the belt moves continuously over the three rollers,subjecting the roll a to a pressing action upon all sides at once, andpromoting the felting operation most rapidly by the pressure of the ribs1 upon the entire length of the bundle at once. When the rolling of thebundle has been continued a proper time the felts can be removed bypullin g forward the swin g-frame, and thus strai ghtening the loop Z.The swinging movement of both frameand treadle affords great facilityfor graduating the pressure upon the roll a while it remains in themachine.

From the above description it will be seen that theaction of the ribbedbelt, arranged to surround the entire bundle of felts, must be much morerapid and effective than the operation of two smooth or ribbed surfacesin contact with the same bundle; but as there are many machines in whichtraveling belts are employed I have shown a means of improving theirefficiency by merely applying my concave ribs to the belts already inuse. In such case they may be made of wood, metal, or india-rubber, andriveted transversely to the belt to pass over the carrying-rollersreadily; but in my improved machine I prefer to use an apron havingindia-rubber ribs cemented thereto, and its body consisting of canvascovered all over with a coating of india-rubber. I have also used thickbelts of pure india-rubber havin gthe ribs molded thereon beforevulcanizing.

I am fully aware that ribs have been arranged in almost every possibleposition in felting-machines heretofore, and that knobs and projectionshave also been applied to aprons or belts, as in the Patent No. 230,101,heretofore secured by me; but the uniform height of all such ribs andprojections, or their arrangement parallel to the opposing parts,compelled them to act upon the middle of a roll of hats much moreeffectively than upon the remainder of the roll, while my improved riboperates equally upon all parts of the roll in contact with it at once.

I am also aware that concave rollers have been used in felting-machines;but the unyielding nature of such a body makes it unsuitable to performthe earlier stages of the felting operation when the felt is tender, andin any case, as the combination of a series of concave ribs with aflexible surface like a belt not only renders it more yielding than asolid roller, but enables the same to act upon all sides of thefelt-roll at once, I consider that the function of such ribs, mountedupon such a yielding body, is essentially different from that of anyroller or other construction previously known. That being the case, itis plain that the essential advantages of my invention may be secured byarranging isolated projections, ridges, or knobs of proper height inseries gradually increasing in prominence from the center of a belttoward the margin, and thus securing an equal pressure upon the wholelength of the bundle of hats at once. I therefore prefer to call myconcave ribs sections, to indicate that the concave profile of the beltis not continuous, but divided into separateportions or sections, whichoperate, in turn, upon the roll of felt as it rolls successively incontact with them.

The utility of my invention depending thus largely upon the beltprovided with concave sections of projecting material upon its surface,it is not essential that the belt should be operated in the precisemanner described herein, nor with the movable rolls described to producethe very best results. The bearings of the rolls 1) and E may thus bearranged in sliding boxes, and moved to and fro by any convenientmechanism, or other arrangement of rollers devised to press the beltagainst the felts and graduate the force exerted at pleasure.

Ido not limit myself, therefore, to the use of the particular materialsdescribed for the belt or its ribs, nor to the construction hereindescribed for the mechanism to be used in operating the belt, as theymay be changed in many respects without affecting the essential featureof my invention, which is the combination of a flexible apron or beltwith a series of ribs arranged to operate in succession upon the bundleor roll of hats, the said ribs being higher or more projecting from thebelt at its edges than in the middle, to correspond with the bulgingconvex profile of a bundle of hatbodies, as fully described herein.

1 therefore claim as my invention as follows:

1. The felting apron or belt constructed with concave sections adaptedto fit and felt a roll of hat-bodies, substantially as herein set forth.

2. The felting-apron provided with the concave sect-ions, in combinationwith the rollers O, D, and E, arranged and operating substantially asherein described.

GEORGE YULE.

Attest:

M. J. DEWITT, THos. S. CRANE.

